Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Crimes Act 1961

Matters of justification or excuse - Arrest

30: Arresting the wrong person

You could also call this:

“This law protects people who accidentally arrest the wrong person when they thought they had the right one.”

If you are given permission to arrest someone with a warrant, and you arrest someone thinking they are the person named in the warrant, you won’t get in trouble if you made a mistake. This is true as long as you honestly believed you were arresting the right person and had good reasons to think so.

The same protection applies to people who are asked to help with the arrest. If they believe they are helping to arrest the right person, they won’t get in trouble if it turns out to be the wrong person.

This protection also extends to prison managers who have to take in and keep the arrested person. They won’t be held responsible if the person brought to them isn’t actually the person named in the warrant.

In all these cases, the people involved are protected from being charged with a crime, just as if they had arrested the correct person named in the warrant.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM328244.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Criminal law
Crime and justice > Police and safety
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29: Irregular warrant or process, or

“Explains when someone can be protected from punishment for following a faulty legal document”

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31: Arrest by constable pursuant to statutory powers, or

“A police officer can legally catch someone without asking a judge first if the law says it's okay.”

Part 3 Matters of justification or excuse
Arrest

30Arresting the wrong person

  1. Every one duly authorised to execute a warrant to arrest who thereupon arrests a person, believing in good faith and on reasonable and probable grounds that he or she is the person named in the warrant, shall be protected from criminal responsibility to the same extent and subject to the same provisions as if the person arrested had been the person named in the warrant.

  2. Every one called on to assist the person making such arrest, and believing that the person in whose arrest he or she is called on to assist is the person for whose arrest the warrant is issued, and every prison manager who is required to receive and detain the person arrested, shall be protected from criminal responsibility to the same extent and subject to the same provisions as if the person arrested had been the person named in the warrant.

Compare
  • 1908 No 32 s 49
Notes
  • Section 30(2): amended, on , by section 206 of the Corrections Act 2004 (2004 No 50).